Navy's opener: High noon at the Horseshoe

A little bit of good news for Navy fans who prefer early games: The Midshipmen’s season-opening Sept. 5 trip to Ohio State will start at noon and be televised by ESPN.

This is also good news for local copy editors who were groaning about the first weekend of the college football season bringing with it Maryland’s 10 p.m. start at California that same day. One-for-two isn’t bad, right?

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In any case, this really comes as no surprise. The Four-Letter Network routinely plugs Big Ten games into its early-afternoon slots, and it’s tough to think any team from the conference is going to be more appealing to show in the first week than Ohio State.

Navy, too, is usually a coveted option, especially since the rights to its 3:30 p.m. home games belong to CBS College Sports. That doesn’t create much envy when Western Kentucky is visiting Annapolis. When it’s someone better – say, Air Force or Pittsburgh or Wake Forest – well, that’s a shame.

So that’s that, and it leaves the times and TV assignments for Navy’s schedule within two games of being completely finalized.